How to Avoid Firing ObservableCollection.CollectionChanged Multiple Times When Replacing All Elements Or Adding a Collection of Elements

Question

I have ObservableCollection<T> collection, and I want to replace all elements with a new collection of elements, I could do:

collection.Clear(); 

OR:

collection.ClearItems();

(BTW, what's the difference between these two methods?)

I could also use foreach to collection.Add one by one, but this will fire multiple times

Same when adding a collection of elements.

EDIT:

I found a good library here: Enhanced ObservableCollection with ability to delay or disable notifications but it seems that it does NOT support silverlight.

Answer 1

ColinE is right with all his informations. I only want to add my subclass of ObservableCollection that I use for this specific case.

public class SmartCollection<T> : ObservableCollection<T> {
    public SmartCollection()
        : base() {
    }

    public SmartCollection(IEnumerable<T> collection)
        : base(collection) {
    }

    public SmartCollection(List<T> list)
        : base(list) {
    }

    public void AddRange(IEnumerable<T> range) {
        foreach (var item in range) {
            Items.Add(item);
        }

        this.OnPropertyChanged(new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Count"));
        this.OnPropertyChanged(new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Item[]"));
        this.OnCollectionChanged(new NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs(NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Reset));
    }

    public void Reset(IEnumerable<T> range) {
        this.Items.Clear();

        AddRange(range);
    }
}